Ripper(5)

My eyes narrowed. “No buts, Liv. You sold me out.”

She snorted and rolled her brown eyes. “You’re such a drama queen. It’s one little case. You know you need something of substance. You can’t spend your whole life hiding from the world.”

“No, I can’t hide from anyone if you keep giving away my hiding spot,” I pointed out. She was tapping her foot, the three-inch heeled shoes making a rhythm of judgment on the tiled floor. “Damn it, Liv, I’m not a missing persons expert.”

Her eyes softened and she smiled. “Yes, you are. You’re an everything expert when it comes to this. You have amazing instincts, Kels. You just don’t trust them anymore. You have to stop punishing yourself.”

Sitting against the edge of her desk, I crossed my arms defensively. “It seems like you’re the one punishing me.”

“Again with the overdrama. You’re worse than my students.” She sighed and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. “She needs you.”

“And what if I can’t find her daughter?” I gave up on the angry approach. I couldn’t keep it up with her.

She leaned beside me, letting our shoulders touch. We sat like that when one of us needed comfort. “Then you’ll at least have tried and Helen will know someone gave a damn. I’m not asking you to succeed, Kelsey. I’m asking you to try.”

“Fine.” How was I supposed to say no to that?

Liv gave me a hug. “Excellent. Now that we have that out of the way, I can move on to the freakier news.” Her pretty face twisted into a rueful grimace. “I’m moving to public school as soon as possible.”

“But you love this school.” She was the one lying because I happened to know this was her dream job.

“Yeah, well, at public school you don’t get memos like the one I got today.” She handed an important looking piece of paper my way. It was meant to catch the eye, printed on bright yellow paper so no one could possibly miss it. “That memo informs all teachers that no matter your chosen method of birth control, you should also begin using a condom.”

“And you’re getting this advice from the principal, why?”

“Because we have a fertility god in third grade this year who came into his powers over the summer,” she said with a playful frown. “Apparently being around the little sucker makes you ovulate. Mary, the third grade teacher, is already two months along.”

I tried to place the name, but all I could see was a fifty-year-old with a sweet smile. That couldn’t be her. “But school’s only been in session for two months.”

“Yup. That’s the point. It gets worse. Mary swears she went through menopause five years ago. Does Costco sell condoms? I’m making Scott put two of those babies on if he wants to touch me.”

“Be really safe, go for three.” I sighed because the day was getting away from me. I’d already gone over all the information the super-organized Helen Taylor had left me. I had a list of all of Joanne’s contacts and every bit of information her mom could think of. I had her driver’s license number and her social security number. I had the names of her roommate, her RA in the dorm, and a schedule of her classes. The first thing I’d done was search some of the social networking sights for any sign of her.

You would be surprised how often kids hide things from their parents that it would be so simple for them to discover if they checked their kid’s Facebook status. No luck with Joanne though. Her Instagram page hadn’t been updated since the week before and then all the smiling pic told me was she’d been studying for a Biology quiz. I needed to go and talk to her roommate. I wished I could say that Liv was wrong and I didn’t have any instincts, but something was telling me that the police were wrong.

Joanne Taylor was in trouble and waiting until tomorrow to get started wasn’t in my nature. Now that I was on the case, I had to get going.

“All right,” I said, pushing myself off the desk. “I need to get over to the SMU campus.”

Liv smiled, seemingly excited at the prospect of my working something more interesting than a rear-end collision. “Do you want some company? I can play Watson to your Holmes.”

I shook my head at the thought. “Sure. Come along and make sure I don’t spook the co-eds. I’m gonna run to the bathroom and then I’ll be good to go.”

Liv pulled her shoulder-length auburn hair out of its sedate ponytail. “I have to call Scott and then I’ll be ready.”

“What are you gonna call him? A douchebag?” I was only half joking. He really was a douchebag.